Favorite New Recipe Blog

Here lately when I google a recipe title, I often end up getting shuttled to this blog: Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. It is a treasure trove of vegan recipes that are fantastic. I'm not vegan, but this roll of recipes is allowing me to build in more and more vegan dishes to our menu at home.

Tonight I am trying cumin rice with eggplant and peas. I bought a cute little egg plant this weekend at the grocery store, and I wanted something fun to do with it. We also happen to have every other ingredient for the recipe on hand at home. We are going to take the author's suggestion of having some roasted asparagus on the side. Our vegan house guest, Stefan, is going to do the honors of making some lentil dip to pair with the whole thing as well. I am actually really looking forward to this meal! Since we have stuff going on every other night this week, it is our one chance to have a healthy meal at home. I hope this turns out as well as it sounds!

RECIPE REVIEW: The Cumin Rice came out wonderfully. I thought we had frozen peas, but we did not. Therefore, I subbed in a can of peas, and it actually worked fine. Just don't overstir (and add the peas at the end when you take the rice out of the oven). We all decided that the dish would possibly even benefit from the addition of some raisins or pine nuts. For non-vegans, a dash of plain yogurt would be a nice touch, too. I added a bit of extra cayenne pepper, and it added a nice back burn on the rice. Overall, a great dish. I thought that with the cumin it would be more southwestern, but the dish was definitely more Middle Eastern in flavor. Very yummy.

Vegetarian "Sausage" Cheese Balls

A favorite treat for many people around the holidays are Sausage Cheese Balls. I believe that Bisquick made these famous with an "on-the-box" recipe. I've had them once before, and I thought they were awesomely tasty. Mike frequently relies on Amy to make these any time we have a weekend out at a cabin or a holiday together. Well, the holiday cravings have struck our household, and today Mike requested some sausage cheese balls. Being the wonderful guy he is, he suggested we make them and use the Gimme Lean Sausage. I was a bit hesitant as to how this would work, given that the fake sausage isn't going to have the fat to be able to hold these little morsels together. Only one way to find out.

I searched the internet to find a good recipe for sausage cheese balls, and I found a myriad of choices. Some seemed too bland, too dry, and none called for fake sausage. I eventually realized that the way to get closest to success was to consult the original. So, I used the recipe posted on the Bisquick site HERE. Of course, no regular sausage, but the fake stuff. Here's the recipe:

1 roll Gimme Lean "Sausage"
3 c Bisquick
4 c cheddar cheese (I used finely shredded)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes

The recipe as stated above will make about 7.5 dozen. As this was merely for Mike and I to snack on all day, I did half the recipe. The prep is easy - dump it all into a bowl, wash your hands, dry them off, then use your hands to mix everything together. Once you have the ingredients well mixed, roll the mix into inch sized balls and place on a lightly greased pan. I used a cake pan which would give some heat from the sides. No need to space them to far from each other - 1/2 inch in between seemed to be plenty of room. Pop in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 18 minutes. I jacked up the heat to 370 for an additional 5 minutes at the end to get some real browning.

Here's the result:
AWESOME. Absolutely wonderful. They were fluffy, had the flavor of sausage without using actual meat. I thought they were wonderful, and Mike agreed that they were excellent. In fact, I think he said, "Did you put crack in these?"

SWEET. Give this a shot for your holiday parties folks - you could make these and put 'em out a party for meat eaters and vegetarians alike. The meat eating folks would have no idea that these bad boys included no meat. They are hardy, tasty, easy to make and great party food. Bon appetit!